1. Agenda **Need your BOOK today!!
Please pick up a white board, marker and eraser.
Pick up the handout.
Take out The Things They Carried article
Bellringer & Discussion about the article
Poem

2. Answer the following on your white boards
Bellringer
Answer the following on your white boards
When you hear about the Vietnam War what are the first people, stories, music, images, technology, etc… that come to your mind?
Positive or Negative outlook? Why?
Jonny cash, protests, messages in songs to stop the war, pull American troops out of the war, forest gump,
How about the article you read? The things they carried? Positive or negative?
Pretty negative, sad, depressing, scary

3. The Things They Carried
By Tim O’brien
Need

4. The Things They Carried
Answer the following on your white boards:
In the excerpt you read, Tim Obrien discussed many things the brave soldiers carried with them in their sacs.
What were some of those things?
Why did they carry them?
“…P-38 can openers, pocket knives, heat tabs, wrist watches, dog tags, mosquito repellent, chewing gum, candy, cigarettes, salt tablets, packets of Kool-Aid, lighter, matches, sewing kits, Military payment Certificates, C-rations, and two or three canteens of water.”

5. The Things They Carried
What other “things” did the soldiers “carry” with them?
Love, responsibility, fear, “silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried”, ghosts, memories, gravity, atmosphere, guilt, emotions, themselves,…
How can someone carry these things?

6. The Things They Carried
Knowing the “weight” of the things they carried, how do you think the soldiers felt about the war? How/Why?
Do they support the fighting?
Are they against the fighting?
If you had to pick 1 or 2 words to describe the Vietnam War from what you know this far, what would it/they be?

7. “The Hollow Men” How does this poem connect to The Things They Carried?
I We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats' feet over broken glass In our dry cellar
Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion; Those who have crossed With direct eyes, to death's other Kingdom Remember us—if at all— not as lost Violent souls, but only As the hollow men The stuffed men.

8. What would be your plan for a “suitable alternative to mines”?
Around 3.5 million armed mines REMAIN in Vietnam, causing 160 civilian casualties each month. Worldwide, more than 25,000 civilians are killed or maimed by land mines each year.
In 1997, the Mine Ban Treaty banned production and use of mines. As of 2014, 139 nations had agreed to the treaty with the U.S., Russia, and China having not signed the treaty. In 2006, President Clinton said the U.S. would sign it if a “suitable alternative to mines was developed”
Minesweeper at the head of a patrol moving along a road
What would be your plan for a “suitable alternative to mines”?